Cookie Deprecation is Dead: What Should the Industry Do Now? 

After what feels like half a lifetime discussing how best to prepare for a cookieless future and arming ourselves for the great third-party cookie demise, Google has abandoned its deprecation plan for Chrome. Surprising? We’ll let you be the judge of that. 

In a blog post published on Monday, Anthony Chavez – vice-president of Privacy Sandbox – briefly detailed Google’s new plan. Instead of going through with third-party cookie deprecation, Google now intends to “introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing”. Users will be able to adjust their privacy choices at any time. At this point, the pivot is fairly ambiguous and nonspecific. The Privacy Sandbox APIs will still be available to all those who wish to continue using them, backed by further investment aimed at enhancing privacy and utility. 

So, what now? With Chrome’s cookieless future no longer looming, the landscape suddenly looks quite different. Google’s latest deprecation delay had shifted the deadline to 2025, giving industry members even more time to get their post-cookie plan in order. Although the pressing need to get alternative solutions in place has decreased, advertisers would be foolish to abandon the pursuit of third-party cookie alternatives entirely. For quite some time now, privacy-centric solutions have been an obvious choice for many advertisers as increasing focus is placed on consumer privacy. 

We asked leaders from across the advertising landscape: what should the industry do now? 

Putting users at the heart of privacy and consent across the open web will improve the value exchange

Despite the backtracking by Google there will no doubt be a place for the continued innovation in adtech to provide audience targeting and measurement in a world with or without cookies.

Putting users at the heart of privacy and consent across the open web will improve the value exchange between publications, brands and their customers, which reading between the lines of the recent announcement from Google will be a future step change in the delivery of advertising online through Chrome, not dissimilar to Apple's Safari, but at a greater scale.

Disintermediating the control of information to a browser may be limiting in terms of the value exchange a user will get for sharing their data. Advertiser investment may shift into opportunities like retail media/data networks to exercise better consumer experiences if they consent to their data being used, representing a greater value exchange.

It is safe to say that there are many unknowns at this point, however the industry is geared and ready to better monestise content and drive high value user experiences regardless of a fundamental shift in Google's deprecation of the 3rd party cookie, having a varied strategy in finding audiences online will yield greater results for advertisers by target individuals in high value, lower priced environments.

Fern Potter, SVP Strategy & Partnerships, Multilocal 

The future will depend a lot on the development of the browser landscape

Short term, Google’s decision means having to get over the countless hours spent on cracking alternatives and on understanding Google’s Privacy Sandbox.

Long term, it will depend a lot on the development of the browser landscape. Safari hasn’t accepted third-party cookies in a long time. A lot of content consumption is happening in Safari, or in in-app browsers, in CTV, through gaming consoles etc. Whether ad land can keep pretending that internet users and (non-incognito) Chrome users are synonymous, will depend on the share of content consumption happening in Chrome.

Anders Lithner, CEO, Brand Metrics

The industry continues to move towards a more user-centric and privacy-compliant ecosystem

Despite Google’s U-turn on third-party cookie deprecation, the wider industry continues to transform towards a more user-centric, privacy-compliant and interoperable ecosystem, enriched by addressable and contextual signals. AI-powered Smart Curation platforms are perfectly positioned as one of the leading solutions, interpreting all data without signal loss, enriching with curators’ data and meeting omnichannel targeting needs.

Filippo Gramigna, co-CEO, Onetag

Cookies are on the way out 

Irrespective of Google’s decision to backtrack on third-party cookie deprecation, we already know that cookies are on the way out as we look to more effective solutions that respect user privacy.

Google itself has promised to let users ‘make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing’, which of course is great news for advertisers and consumers. But at the same time, with cookies already deprecated in Safari, Firefox and Edge, around 30-40% of the open web is already non-addressable through third-party cookies, hence the plethora of technologies that have already emerged to replace cookies in the long term.

Owen Hancock, RVP Marketing EMEA, impact.com 

Also published in: ExchangeWire